Colorado-developed fire extinguishers to go to space station

Two water-mist fire extinguishers developed in Colorado are headed to the International Space Station to be used in future space missions.

The Denver Post reports the portable fire extinguishers, which are the first of nine to be sent to the space station, are products of research at the Colorado School of Mines. They will be heading to the space station Thursday on Orbital ATK’s unmanned spacecraft atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket.

Researchers have been working on the extinguishers, which use micro-sized water droplets to suppress flames, for 18 years.

The fog-like mist caught the attention of NASA and was eventually tested on the ill-fated Space Shuttle Columbia mission in 2003.

Data from those tests helped develop the extinguishers set to be launched Thursday.